Animal, seafood and agriculture businesses dominate 2019 Ignition Fund recipients

A company that makes nutrition and flavour enhancersfor dog food and a business that created a veterinary device for managing livestock are among the recipients of this year's Ignition Fund.

P.E.I.'s Department of Economic Growth, Tourism and Culture announced this year's recipients on Thursday.

"The key to entrepreneurial success is the drive of the individual and the strength of their idea," said Matthew MacKay, the department's minister, in a release.

"As a former entrepreneur myself, I recognize the importance of government supporting small businesses because that drive and those ideas represent the future of our provincial economy."

Each business was awarded a $25,000 grant.

This year's 10 Ignition Fund recipients are:

• Lake Designs and Strategies(Chelsey Lake and Michael Kogan): A user-friendly solution for small businesses so they will be able to offer scheduling and ticketing services for their websites.
• Chow Time Pet Foods Inc.(Zack Montreuil): An all-natural dog food nutrition and flavour enhancer.
• Innovation for LawyersInc.(Jacinta Gallant): Offering resources, training and innovative tools for lawyers working in collaborative family-law practice.
• TopFeed Industries(Vaughn Murphy): An online platform for use by small-scale food producers who run food subscriptions like Community Supported Agricultureor CSA farms, to enable efficiency in the marketplace.
• Common Man Seafood & Microcannery (John and Jordan McIntyre): Processes and exports premium smoked P.E.I. oysters in single-serving tins for distribution to high-end restaurants and specialty food stores.
• Van Kampen's Greenhouses(Mike Cassidy): Production of a liquid bio-stimulant extracted from sea lettuce, in collaboration with UPEI'sfaculty of sustainable design engineering, for introduction to the consumer market to encourage plant growth.
• Au Naturel Solutions (Simonne Cormier): The development and manufacturing of all-natural alternative health products.
• Scout (Adam Bent): Craft cannery andpurveyors of sustainable seafood.
• Camp Awesome(Gavin Hall): A curriculum-based series of educational books, teaching resources and interactive tools designed for early years school-aged children.
• An Animal Health Company for the Enhanced Management of Livestock (Daniel Hurnik DVM, Scott Dingwell and Curtiss Littlejohn): A veterinary device for management of pigs on farms to result in higher welfare for pigs.

Since 2014, the P.E.I. government's Ignition Fund has assisted 58Island businesses.

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